EPA Clears Its Own Path For New Air Quality Rules

摘要

The Biden administration revoked another rule its predecessor touted as a transparency measure in mid-May, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an interim final rule to rescind the Trump administration's regulation titled "Increasing Consistency and Transparency in Considering Benefits and Costs in the Clean Air Act Rulemaking Process," also known as the Benefit-Cost Rule. The agency says the rule saddled it with unacceptable procedural restrictions and requirements EPA notes its review was prompted by President Biden's Executive Order 13990, "Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis." According to the agency, the Trump-era regulation: 1.Imposed broad restrictions and requirements on when and how the Agency must conduct benefit-cost analyses (BCA) for CAA rulemakings without explaining why those requirements were needed; 2.Was unnecessary because EPA already prepares BCAs under CAA actions that warrant them; 3.Limited EPA's ability to rely on the best available science; 4.Included presentational requirements that invited net benefit calculations in misleading regulatory preambles that clashed with economic best practices; 5. Did not reconcile its provision that EPA consider the required BCAs with substantive CAA mandates.